Worldmate

Published: 28 June 2005

Every once in a while, a reviewer will come across an app that performs well and shines even though you have no idea when you'll next get an opportunity to test it to its limits or in the capacity for which it was designed. Worldmate from Mobimate is one such app.

Not really one program performing one individual task but a collection of four "mini-apps" that are aimed at frequent travellers. The first is a collection of time displays, each giving the exact time wherever you currently are and in four other cities of your choice. The display is crisp and easy to read and puts your on-board system clock to shame. Page 2 displays a five day forecast of the weather for your chosen city and before we have any complaints along the lines of "But I don't live anywhere near London" several major UK cities such as Edingburgh and Cardiff (amongst others) are covered as well. So if you want to find out if its raining on Sendo HQ, just select " Birmingham" from the list. The weather is displayed as an icon with a brief sentence next to it with more detailed info, together with the temperature in Farenheit and Celsius. To get the latest weather info, the phone needs to make a GPRS connection - a relatively small download later and you have a new 5-day forecast.. The GPRS connection can be set to update automatically on a daily basis but I prefer to do it manually as it saves on the data call costs. A reminder at the bottom of the page tells you when it was last updated.

The next is a worldmap that tracks current day and night zones with the map being quite well detailed, despite it's size. A white crosshair marks your selected city (these can be cycled through in alphabetical order by pushing up and down on the joypad or by selecting Change city in the Options menu). Below the map is a brief summary of some of the info on other pages - a small icon displaying the weather, a breif readout of the temperature (you can choose either Celsius or Farenheit from the Options menu) and the current time. It's worth mentioning at this point that the weather display only works if you have updated the Weather page (see above). The final page is a currency converter, which allows you to select the different currencies to convert between. This can be done under "Change currency" in the options menu. Simply enter the amount in whatever currency you choose and the converter gives you an up to the day accurate conversion by acquiring the latest exchange rates via GPRS - this can also be set to update either automatically or at the user's request.

Even though I really don't travel much (or rather as much as I would like to) I still find Worldmate has quite a lot to offer me. The GPRS connection costs can mount up quite quickly but if you update manually and cautiously, Worldmate is good value for money. The fact that it works flawlessly on the Sendo also counts strongly in it's favour.NB: the latest version is for v2 Series 60 phones, although Mobimate have said that they will arrange a link to the old version for Sendo users. Provided they keep their promise, I have no hesitation in recommending Worldmate for an SSC Gold Award.